August can have some of the warmest and driest days of the year, and while we should all rightly celebrate whatever summer sunshine we get, our plants can get a little baked and begin to look a bit tired. Despite any hosepipe bans, there are plenty of ways to freshen up your garden so you can best enjoy the last days of summer.

Now is the perfect time to start trimming and tidying things up around the garden. This is a great way to keep things from looking spent with the long dry days. As soon as your lavender has finished flowering, cut the flowering stems off with a pair of shears. Trimming this now will mean it doesn’t get leggy and woody, and ensures it keeps a compact form through the winter.

Encourage fresh growth

Herbs such as mint, chives, marjoram and basil may have gone a bit past their best and can be cut back this month to encourage a fresh growth of leaves before the season is out.

Deadheading may seem like a something and nothing sort of job in the garden, but it is this alone which will have the biggest impact in stretching out summer displays well into the months to come. Dahlias, roses and any perennials and annuals you have can always do with a quick deadheading session to keep promoting those flowers.

Ensure a spectacular display next year

Using a strimmer or brushcutter, wildflower meadows and areas of long grass should be cut this month and all of the cuttings removed. While the spectacle and splendour of allowing these areas of the garden to naturalise was undoubtedly magnificent, it is our correct maintenance of them that will ensure we can look forward to a similarly spectacular display next year.

Waiting until now to cut these areas ensures that not only any bulbs have safely died back, but all the wildflowers will have set their seeds. Cutting the meadow as short as possible, even if it does look scalped, means that these seeds have some bare earth to make contact with and grow anew.

A great location for hibernating animals in your garden

Lastly, but by all means most importantly, clearing all of the cuttings away means that they don’t rot into the ground and feed it, for it will promote vigorous grass growth which will choke out the wildflowers and bulbs. All of the cuttings can be added to your compost heap or piled up as a habitat pile, as it makes a great location for hibernating animals in your garden. The now cut area can now be kept mown with the lawnmower until the spring, when it all begins again.